Hilton Head, SC

Cost:$630.00Partner Organization(s):Habitat for Humanity and The Outside FoundationService Type:Housing and Environmental ConservationLanguage(s):EnglishNumber of Participants:6

Trip Logistics / Participant Requirements:

We will be driving in two cars from Charlottesville on Saturday, March 3. Emily and
Erin will pick up participants that morning and begin our 8-hour car ride to Hilton Head (road
trip playlists will be greatly appreciated!). We will be staying in housing provided by a
community partner of Habitat for Humanity Hilton Head, and we will be traveling the island
with Emily and Erin’s cars along with the Outside Foundation’s boat to travel to their volunteer
site.

Participants should have a positive attitude during service and be willing and able to do
physical labor. Enthusiasm during service activities is expected as well. No construction
experience is required from participants, only the willingness to try something new! A love for
games is not required, but Emily and Erin will try their best to continue the card playing tradition
from their last ASB trip!

Service Activities:
On Monday and Tuesday, we will be volunteering with The Outside Foundation. The
Outside Foundation’s main purpose is to educate youth on the importance of maintaining a
healthy ecosystem through outdoor experiences. While they focus on education, we are
volunteering to clean their facilities and better enable them to teach youth about the environment
of Hilton Head. Our volunteering hours with them will include cleaning the areas of the
Foundation used for children’s education, cleaning up docks and other wooden structures,
repairing facilities, and clearing brush and salt marsh wrack.
On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we will be volunteering with Habitat for
Humanity. In Hilton Head, Habitat for Humanity’s mission is to build homes and rebuild and
transform communities. The organization also advocates for affordable housing. Habitat for

Humanity is beginning a new phase of construction in Hilton Head during the time of our trip,
which is very exciting! Some of the tasks that we will be doing while volunteering with Habitat
for Humanity could include simple construction work, painting, cleaning, raking, caulking,
installing windows, or building porches and ramps.

Regional Background:
Hilton Head, South Carolina is home to many special wetland ecosystems, including
saltwater marshes, freshwater marshes, and forested wetlands. The coastal environment provides
the opportunity for activities such as boating, hiking, and fishing, popular among the island’s
large summer crowd of vacationers. What the island is most famous for, however, are its
beautiful beaches and variety of golf courses, creating a large population of retirees on the island.
As a result of tourism and the wealthy elderly population, Hilton Head has an extensive
hospitality industry, consisting of hotels, resorts, and thousands of hospitality workers.

Community Background:
Because of the rising housing costs in Hilton Head, many of the low-income hospitality
workers cannot afford to live on the island. While Hilton Head has nearly 1,500 homes in their
traditionally low-cost areas, many of the 8,400 hospitality workers are forced to live outside the
city, commuting up to 2 hours to work. Habitat for Humanity has been a leading organization on
the island in providing accommodations for workers in need of affordable housing.
The wetlands in Hilton Head are vital to preventing flooding, filtering water, and
providing homes to countless species; however, the ecosystems are very sensitive, and the
increased tourism around these areas is dangerous to the wetlands. The Outside Foundation not
only helps clean the wetlands, but also educates children on the importance of respecting the
environment, ensuring that Hilton Head will stay clean in the future!

Recreational Activities:
Our free time in Hilton Head will be spent taking advantage of the charming beaches and
the opportunities that they offer. We plan on taking a boat tour around the island so that we can
enjoy the sea breezes and get a 360° view of where we will be serving. Other afternoons will be
spent immersing ourselves in Hilton Head’s unique natural environment by kayaking in the
wetlands, biking on the beach, and visiting Sea Pines Forest Preserve. In addition to getting to
know the town of Hilton Head, we will take a day trip to Savannah, Georgia where we will
explore the Historic District and take a ghost tour in one of America’s most haunted cities.

About the Site Leaders:
Emily is a third year English major. Last spring break, she and Erin met on the ASB Charleston
trip and bonded over card games and overusing our ASB groups’ multitude of inside jokes. Some of Emily’s favorite things are coffee mugs (and coffee), The Golden Girls, and taking too many
pictures of her dachshund. In her free time she loves to run, kayak, read, and binge watch
Jeopardy episodes on her DVR.

Erin is a third year Classics and Archaeology major from Staunton, Va. She is a member of the
Washington Society where she laughs too much at bad jokes, her own jokes, and most of all, her
own bad jokes. When she is not babysitting (mostly for the babies, partly for the money) or
petting other people’s dogs, Erin loves cooking, eating, and hosting friends for some wild nights
of board games. Participants are sure to benefit both from Erin’s culinary skills and her eclectic
game collection.